Every time we see a broken phone, we grimace. It’s awful, and people continue to use phones with broken glass. Shocking. But if you’re an Optus customer, the telco is hoping its simplified insurance system will give you less of a reason to walk around with broken stuff.
The telco has this week unveiled a clearer version of its insurance plans for gadgets bought from Optus, with prepaid customers now able to pay $13 per month per gadget to get international coverage on gadgets damaged accidentally, as well as stolen or lost.
Called “Optus Yes Cover,” this change takes a process with near 50 claim types down to something a little bit easier to understand and with no lock-in contracts, as well as an unlimited claims process, asking consumers to pay $50 for an accidentally damaged gadget and $150 for either a lost or stolen one, replacing the gadget altogether rather than getting it repaired.
“Optus Yes Cover is all about giving our customers peace of mind,” said Ben White, Vice President of Mobile Marketing at Optus.
“We know how much Australians love their phones. They take them everywhere, on holiday, while exercising or even to the bathroom. But we also know disasters do strike. That’s why we’ve improved our device insurance to make it simpler, faster and easier for customers to get their devices fixed.”
We’ve checked with Optus on some things and found that it’s $13 per month per gadget, meaning if you want to insure both an Optus iPhone and an Optus iPad, that’ll be an extra $26 per month for both of them.
If you accidentally scratch either, the cost is $50 for a replacement which will arrive in one to two days, likewise if you shatter the screen, but if either are lost or stolen, the replacement cost is $150 (each) due to not having anything to give back to Optus.
We’ll be curious to see how many people buy into insurance, though. We’re not sure this is something people still use, and given how many broken phones we see out there on the streets, will be surprised if this becomes a big seller for Optus.
